In contact sports such as lacrosse or hockey, where sticks are essential elements of the game, the hands and wrists are especially vulnerable to injury when being checked by another player's stick. For this reason, players typically utilize padded gloves to protect their hands, wrists, and lower forearms during play.
The flexibility of a players fingers and hands is often restricted due to the heavy padding protective with which typical protective gloves are constructed. Currently, some gloves have been designed with segmented padding in the finger and hand portions to reproduce the natural gripping position of a player's hands. U.S. Pat. No. 5,511,243 issued Apr. 30, 1996, to Hall et al., discloses a hockey glove having padded ribs fanning out from the point of the proximate knuckle on the index finger to allow for ergonomic flexing of the glove when the player's hand is gripping a hockey stick. The ribs are configured next to one another such that when the hand is gripping the stick, the ribs separate to form a right angle with respect to one another. However, if a player is struck on the hand while gripping the stick, the player's hands are not sufficiently protected at the seams where the ribs join. It is thus a problem to design the ribs that are ergonomic and protective.
Wrist guards are also known in the art and are widely used on lacrosse gloves to provide protection for a player's wrist between the cuff and the glove portion. U.S. Pat. No. 4,947,073 issued Feb. 5, 1985, to Deutsch discloses a glove including a padding portion which protects the back of a player's wrist and is securely attached to the glove portion by stitching. Such stitched attachment limits flexibility and adjustment and of glove. Hall et al includes a wrist protection band attached to the glove by a web. However, such a web does little to control adjustment of the wristband with respect to the glove.
Protection of the lower forearm is also a concern for people who utilize protective gloves, such as lacrosse players. These protective gloves must protect a player's forearm, yet it must not interfere with wrist flexibility. Deutsch, discloses a lacrosse glove in which the cuff portion is adjustably connected to the glove with removable lacings. The Hall patent discloses a sports glove provided with Velcro straps to secure the cuff around the wrist. Gloves of these designs do not prevent players from undoing such fasteners to improve their wrist flexibility. In fact, it is known that players commonly undo such straps, thereby causing the inner wrist portion to be exposed and unprotected, increasing the chances for injury. Additionally, Deutsch and Hall et al disclose cuffs that are secured to the glove portion by stitching. This stitching limits the flexibility of a player's wrist and also cannot be adjusted. Thus, it is a problem to design an adjustable cuff for a sports glove that protects a player's wrist and that does not compromise wrist flexibility.